Severance officials to host community meeting with police chief finalists

Severance officials are hosting Monday a community meeting to give residents an opportunity to chat with the two finalists for the community's first police chief.

The finalists include Sgt. Daniel Frazen, of Greeley police, and Sgt. Misty Higby, of Silverthorne police. The meet and greet takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday at Severance Town Hall, 3 S. Timber Ridge Parkway.

A Severance Town Board meeting immediately follows and residents are invited to provide input to leaders about the two finalists. The Severance Town Board will choose a chief during Monday night's meeting, said Michael Jenner, director of Community Development for Severance.

The decision isn't expected to be easy, as both Frazen and Higby are veteran police officers.

A Wellington resident, Frazen has 25 years of law enforcement experience with a diverse background, as is traditionally the case with Greeley police officers. During his career, Frazen has worked patrol, investigations, special operations, emergency management, homeland security, community outreach and narcotics. He holds a master's degree in emergency services management and is an instructor at two police academies in northern Colorado.

Higby started her law enforcement career in 2004 in Silverthorne as a patrol officer and later a patrol investigator. She quickly rose through the ranks to her current position as sergeant, which comes with commander responsibilities for Silverthorne police. For six months in 2016, Higby served as interim chief following the retirement of Mark Hanschmidt, who was replaced by John Minor, who previously served as Summit County's sheriff for 12 years.

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"It's a unique opportunity because Severance has adopted a community policing philosophy that is so similar to Silverthorne's," Higby said, admitting she has long aspired to be a police chief. "I don't want to go to a big agency. I like small departments where you have the opportunity to mentor officers because that's what people did here for me."

It's not uncommon for the top cops to feel burned when one of their own wants to move on to another agency, but that isn't the case with Minor or Greeley police Chief Mark Jones.

"You don't want to lose good people, but I certainly want people to succeed at what they want to do," Jones said. "If you lose somebody good and they go on to a position of that kind of stature, I think that just speaks to the quality of people at your department."

Minor feels much the same way about Higby. He was the one who told Higby about the opportunity in Severance.

"It's about following your dreams, right?" Minor said. "It sounds like a unique place and a unique opportunity. You get to set the tone, the culture from day one, which is so rare in law enforcement these days."

Severance received 39 applicants from 17 states for the town's first ever police chief, Jenner said. A citizens committee was created to vet the candidates and whittle the field down to two finalists.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.